Amy is in a local large-tech-corporation store to buy a new computer. The last one works okay, but it's been finicky, and displays warnings all over that say "Your computer is outdated and will no longer be receiving updates." Hardly any online services work on the computer anymore. Her son, young yet tech-savvy, said something about installing a new operating system, but Amy is really busy and buying a new device seems to be the only suggestion she gets from the employees at the store.
"You can get the new Model X4 V2," an employee elaborates, "It's got lots of similar features to your last model, but it's a lot more robust in regards to graphics and speed."
Amy really doesn't want to buy it. It feels like splurging, it feels wrong, but she needs a working computer ASAP. She's got work in the morning tomorrow at 7, it's currently 8 in the evening, and she still needs to make dinner.
After a deep sigh, she concedes, "I'll buy it."
"Perfect. It'll be $1,499, but we can also make arrangements for an installment plan. Come with me to the register."
***
Richard is sitting in a dorm room at a college. He scrolls on his phone. He's been told a hundred times that scrolling is an addictive habit, but he doesn't care anymore.
James, his roommate, walks in.
"Hey Richard. Studyin'?"
"Nah, I'll do it tomorrow. I still got time."
James and Richard are clearly unable to sustain a conversation more than two minutes long. Richard continues scrolling. Then, a pop-up interrupts his constant stream of semi-passive mind stimulation.
"Your phone is out of storage," his phone warns.
Richard has done everything he could to free up storage space for his phone. What more does his phone want from him? He dismisses the warning. Then, upon his next swipe, he sees an advertisement that seamlessly fits the dimensions of his phone screen. It fills his screen with an electric blue and loud yellow and coercive green.
"128 GB of storage. 32 GB of cloud storage. Flawless photos," some part of the ad says.
Annoyed, Richard says aloud, "Screw it. I'm getting a new phone."
The ad whispers, "$899."
Richard continues scrolling.
***
Jacob is a popular content creator. He walks into his room and sits in his specially-designed, ergonomic, illuminating chair, and powers on his computer. It's composed of a heavy-duty monitor that displays graphics at a refresh rate of 120 frames per second (even though the human eye can hardly discern the difference between 120 frames per second and 60 frames per second), and a large semi-transparent box of computer parts, lined with LEDs to poorly imitate a geometrically implausible rainbow.
Jacob turns the computer on, and sees he has received an email. He clicks on it. It's from an advertising representative of a large-tech-corporation.
Part of the email reads, "Hello Jacob, we have noticed your use of our products is an essential part of your career. Perhaps you would like to help us help you? Click below to learn more."
This company wants to sponsor Jacob in one of his videos. Might as well, Jacob thinks. He clicks to learn more to sell out.
***
It is 8 in the evening. Will is in his apartment room. He takes his laptop out of his backpack. It's nothing special. He bought it off of eBay for $150. It didn't come with a battery, hard disk drive, nor an operating system. He bought the parts and installed some Linux distro onto it. It's been working for him for five years, and he expects it to work for the next ten years.
He pulls out his phone, and checks for notifications. It's a flip phone. Will was tired of the useless fancy graphics. He wasn't a five-year-old in need of a cool toy. He was sick of the cloud. He wanted all his files with him in a safe place, not with some company to feed into their data training programs. The phone taught him that he didn't need to take photos every day.
Sometimes, people would think that he's being old fashioned. Or that he had adopted a crazy philosophy of "owning nothing to be happy." This wasn't true. He remembers his mom and the installment payments to pay for a new computer when the old one had parts that still worked. He remembers his brother's obsession of buying new phones and throwing away perfectly functional ones. He remembers the sell outs. In reality, Will owns more than most people. He has control of his technology.
He opens his laptop and checks his bank account balances. He's just $100 away from moving out of the dingy apartment. Months of ignoring the glittering technologies had truly paid off.